Is it the topics? I would like to think that my blogging carnival topics are original, unique, and good topics for carnival participation. Participants and readers have enjoyed the topics.

Is it the timeline? No. I give nearly a full month between topic announcement and entry deadline. Unlike another site that expects you to get the entry idea done and posted with less than a week warning of the topic announcement.

Is it the result of too many bloggers listening to a outright blatant liar who does nothing but slander me and my carnival because his is lacking, as is the quality of his site's content due to no one's fault but his own for hiring someone incompetent to manage his site? Probably.

Why are so many people listening to this fool? Because just like any strong dictator, the minute you speak against said leader, he and all his little henchmen come after you. Why? Because dictators don't like people that don't agree with them. They rule by conformity. Step out of line of the pack of lemmings and you get hammered for being a non-supporter. Who likes being held under the authority of a dictator? Say one free-thought comment on Twitter against the dictator's camp or his henchmen and a wave of attacks comes. When it boils down to it, it's just that they have more people in their camp. What really does that matter though?

I recall one young Israelite that faced the massive army of the Philistines and their Pagan leader, Goliath.

Just be careful Mr. Dictator. Pride goeth before a fall.

Why You Should Be Participating In The Blogging Carnival

Exposure - Guest Posting and Carnival Participation are 2 of the best ways to get new readers. Maybe those new readers will turn into subscribers, buyers, or commentors.

Page Ranks - You Link to the Carnival which grows that page's rank with Google. The Carnival links to you, which helps your site's page rank. It's a win-win. As we both grow in ranking, we help build each others rank. As my site ranks higher, all sites I link to rank higher. My largest traffic source every day is from Google/Yahoo/Bing searches. That means new readers end up here first before they find other sites. I don't have to leech my traffic from other sites, but when starting out that is a great way to start building your reader base. You can benefit from my SEO practices when people search and end up coming to my site first, where do they go next? Better chance of getting a referral from here, if you are actually participating in the carnivals, guest posting, and leaving intellegent comments.

Build Relationships - Carnival Participants read each others posts. Continued participation and exposure in the Blogging Carnivals helps to build your authority and reader base, but also can get you that foot in the door you are looking for to be submitting guest posts to others sites.

Topic Ideas - Blogging on a daily basis is by no means easy. The topic for the carnival is your free idea for a daily post. Stuck on what to write about next? Why? You haven't written a carnival entry yet!

Fun & Revisits - The readers love these carnivals as they are a great exposure to many opinions of the same topic. These are some of the most read and re-visited posts throughout the year, not just the day of the Blogging Carnival. So your post for 1 day for the carnival will get your traffic through the year as readers visit the Blogging Carnival tab.

18 comments:

I receive a *lot* of traffic from some sites. Under those circumstances, I will remain on good terms with those sites.

Mud sticks; marking both those that fling the mud as well as the recipient.

At the moment you are prioritising your complaint against another blogger over your carnival. Many readers only the first part of a post. About a third of your post is dedicated to slinging mud when the apparent intention of the post is to advertise your carnival.

Understate your complaint; Avoid the issue where practical. Use a paragraph rather than a post. Use a single line rather than a paragraph. Use neutral terms

Finally, it is not just the carnival that attracts traffic to other site, but also your blogroll.

To entice more bloggers:* Stop slinging mud* Offer a spot on your regular blogroll for published posts* Encourage submitters to compare and contrast their published posts on your carnival.

"Is it the topics"- Yes. Sometimes it's hard to think of something (when you posted this topic for the month- I did a "comment post" on it)

"Is it the timeline" Nope. plenty of time. =)

"Is it the ..... liar" Nope. I am really tired of all this and don't want to hear about this shit anymore from either of you guys. Sure, the twitter wars were fun for a minute, but it's like day old bread. A little stale...some might like it, but most will just throw it away.

Yeah, Anon ban is off. That is until I have to delete too many posts a day left by idiots. I understand not everyone using anon is hiding and I want everyone to be able to comment. Unless more idiots ruin it for everyone else again.

90% of anonymous commentors post garbage or spam.

Not slinging mud myself, just trying to say stop following other people just for the sake of following and blending in. Think for yourself. This site is growing without you, as is my new site. You can get on the bandwagon and benefit as well, or you can stay off and wallow in the mud with the others.

That is the main point. Not slinging mud, but of course thats what people like to single out and focus on when they can't see the big picture.

I love your site and the information you share, but did I ever tell you about my college A$%%^&^le room mate who still owes me 2 months rent... probally not because you would think that "hey thats between you two and i am not involved nor intrested"

I feel like this post is more melodramatic petty mudslinging disguised as concern in which you've accused all of the past participants of your Carnival of playing favorites and/or of being weak-minded and easily swayed.

But, hell, I'll answer anyways.

I have nothing to say regarding the topics y'all have chosen. Not to say they are bad topics at all, but if reading over a topic doesn't automatically spark an idea for a post I will usually skip over it. Sure, I could probably brainstorm a post, make some shit up, or hammer a different concept enough for it to fit into the mold of a carnival topic, but I don't want to. I want all posts on my site, and especially posts that are submitted to Carnivals or as guest posts, to be written because I had something to say and because I wanted to, not because I felt obligated to spew out some random sentences to meet a Carnival topic or deadline. Lately, though I find the topics in both your Carnival and JMTC's interesting from a reader's standpoint I have not felt I had anything astounding to contribute, and so I did not.

Good reasons. Thanks for explaining the lack of participation. Then again, you're already established. Newer bloggers really aren't utilizing either carnival to the fullest and that's the main gist here.

And yes there are those that are scared to participate due to fear of being attacked or cut off from the other blogroll for participating.

I have friends behind the enemy lines. You wouldn't believe the shit I hear coming out of there with discouraging people, attacking people for assisting me on other projects, or forcing people to pick sides, etc.

You won't hear that petty high school clique drama garbage coming from this side though. Forcing people to pick sides and threatening them? Really? Such a great "community builder" tactic.

My offers to help others still stands as is, regardless of affiliation.

Cold this is the first anon. Please explain how a post with 80% mud slinging is anything else? What is this tale of growth based on? Your newest site is just you hosting and requesting other bloggers to share in content creation as well as readership. You're going to grow initially, but what steps have you taken to grow beyond the initial audiences you will gain from the other bloggers involved? I don't see anything in this blog that shows leadership, which is what I think you're tryin to show by mud slinging. That's bullying, not leadership. I don't like being insulted for following anyone besides you either.

Probably won't pulish this but you pissed me off with your horribly contrived explanation. I'm sure you're catching a lot of flak go this post as you shoul be.

The other site is in Phase 1. Much more is yet to come. And the growth will follow.

It's not sharing readers from the main sites hardly at all, as most readers of the main sites are going to get little to no benefit from the traffic draw of new players and players new to gold making. Once they are schooled on basics though, they will be graduating to higher learning and onto the main sites.

80% mud slinging? I see a single paragraph that could be construed as derogatory. When in fact it is much more of a call to action to the chickenshits hiding behind the crowd afraid to step out of line or be hammered by the real bully of this community.

I find the whole thing lame, childish and generally just ridiculous on both sides. It's more of the same bull shit, high school drama that kills guilds and ruins people's experiences on forums. I'm looking at a lot of smaller, less emo blogs for tips now....

The funniest thing of all is that May 10th of 2010, just over a year ago, you posted this:"Thanks Markco / Welcome New Readers:Friday, my site was recommended by Markco on the great Just My Two Copper. I was averaging about 80 visits a day, but on Friday I got 551 visits with another 265 Saturday. Thanks Marcko for sending your readers my way...."

PS: Cold's Gold Factory Blog to start.Then CGF and Auction House Junkies (Wes and I are both seeing a ton of growth from that alone).Now CGF, AHJ, and a new collaboration site at Goldgrub's.Goldgrub's has big plans including probably another podcast specific for newer players / young goblins.

That's what I call growth. Growth together will others is a collaberation. We are growing and doing new good things. People can join and benefit too, or they can choose not to, then watch us rise as they are stuck in the mud from their stupid allegiances that prevented them from helping themselves.

As I've said before, every baby eventually weens itself from the mother.

When someone sends you bullshit responses over and over when you contact them and gets so defensive that they start attacking you for no reason, then create false stories about you scamming their paypal account (which is an outright lie) and posts other completes lies as a smokescreen after they are caught red handed lieing to you and cheating you out of money, then your tune would change too.

C'mon Scott can't this just be a post about your blogging carnival? You do a great thing with this Carnival by helping people--you helped me when I had my blog up and running man and I'm greatful for that. Why does this have to be a "screw him" post instead of just a great promotion of your Successful Blogging Carnival?

I guess im just in the corner of; at some point this mud slinging has to stop and one side has to take the higher road and ignore the other. I wasn't in support of Markco's post the other day--I can see where he's coming from as to why but it was still just a sucker punch when its all said and done.

One of you two will just have to be the bigger person and take that one cheapshot and ignore it and let this thing die out and go away.